Shark diving on Emerald Charters in Jupiter +

[guyharrisonphoto]

Hi Dan,

Please look at my post in the other thread where I compare Jimmy's safety protocols to what the video showed. I then gave a list of protocols that might make these dives at least marginally safer and predictable. If you think it might serve the discussion here, please copy and paste them. Although I was and still am highly critical of what I saw in that video, I don't want this to be a wholly destructive discussion on my part.

I must disagree that spearing fish and having bait float among the divers is unlikely to trigger an injury. Jimmy's only two incidents (including a fatality and his own lemon bite) happened when the divers got mixed up with the bait. Certainly, the protocols used on my trip on the Shearwater did not allow such a procedure for shark viewing dives. If Jimmy or the divemasters saw even one tenth of the behavior in that seven minute video, they would have "gone postal" and those divers would have been sitting out the dives until they woke up.

Also, Jimmy's dives were on the bottom in benign conditions and shallow water. Doing this at depth in 130 feet or more, or with a group of disconnected free swimming divers near the surface, just adds a whole new level of hazard.

If these dives can be made relatively safe, I would agree that they might be good for conservation and public awareness, but there is a long way to go before Maribi and I sign up for what I saw or for me to do anything but strenuously discourage everyone we know. By contrast, I would take her with Jimmy any day, using the procedures we used in the Bahamas.

 

[danvolker]

Thanks for the response Dan. So essentially what you're saying is we need to do a little more homework to figure out about the origination of the law.
That shark dives are a potential gold mine for diving tourism in our area, and that the implications of these dives has yet to be truly discovered?
I like the idea that these dives could have an indirect impact on curving commercial shark fishing.

The one problem I see is that this is a high risk (or more appropriately *high consequence*) high reward activity. It will draw in a bunch of divers to the charter, but if one person gets bit the nature of our media will show this in a horrible light. The dive operator will suffer and the local diving industry may also suffer a momentary lull in customers (who are afraid).

What do you think about my other questions; Could this have a negative impact on the local shark population in terms of their feeding habits and migratory patterns?

Really appreciate the first hand historical accounts and thoughtful response.

It is a smart question, in that it is a known issue in how "some" terrestrial predators can be effected by feeding. The scientists Jimmy works with don't see this as impacting sharks...

Jimmy has talked about the impacts on feeding....sharks have always been opportunistic feeders....if a whale dies, the sharks have lots to eat...if there is a lot of fish kills going on due to rapid temperature change, etc., sharks take care of it--they don't forget how to hunt after a big kill period......they have their hunting skills programmed in...they won't lose it because we add an opportunity a day...they are still hard wired.....
..............and we would not actually be feeding them( in the shark tourism plan I would want) .. we would be just letting them think food is around....
.....Think about this...since the 1920's or even before, there have been fishing boats, and party boats, chumming and baiting, and accidentally feeding the sharks( sharks stealing the fish on a line) ...this has never caused any problems with the sharks feeding themselves, and no one has ever cared about what the enormous fishing user group was doing in the vein.

Migratory patterns...that IS a good question for Jim to ask of the scientists he works with....they are currently engaged in many tagging programs, in an effort to learn more about migratory patterns....You would think that over the hundreds of millions of years of the shark, with all the fluctuations in predator/prey population balances that there have been--that they would have become adept at determining when a prey population has become depleted at a major migratory stopping point, and that they need to discover others, or different prey....( hopefully one day the lionfish)....If more prey is found at one stop in a migratory route, I would expect that many sharks would stay longer.....but the real impact of this would have been seen from hot fishing spots over the last 100 years....much more feeding from that, than Randy could do with even 100 evil twins getting involved

My two cents....We should have JIm Abernethy do a talk on this some time!

 

[purepursuit]

Would love to engage in an open discussion on this topic with people like yourself and Jim. Keep me posted if this ever happens .

The H&L fishing charter thought is a total paradigm for me on this topic and I'd say you're right.

For now I guess we'll have to watch and see what the potential consequence is going to be. As I mentioned earlier my prediction is if someone gets torn up the bad press will ensue.

 

[Amazz]

I seem to remember the feeding ban came around the time of a couple of high profile beach attacks. Remember Jesse Arbogast in the Panhandle and the man swimming in Grand Bahama. Both were serious attacks and bulls. It was around that time the ban kicked in. There was a lot of media frenzy at the time.

 

[purepursuit]

That makes a lot of sense Amazz. It's a tourist industry nightmare to have Florida portrayed anymore than it already is as the shark bite capital of the world.

 

[danvolker]

Hi Dan,

Please look at my post in the other thread where I compare Jimmy's safety protocols to what the video showed. I then gave a list of protocols that might make these dives at least marginally safer and predictable. If you think it might serve the discussion here, please copy and paste them. Although I was and still am highly critical of what I saw in that video, I don't want this to be a wholly destructive discussion on my part.

I must disagree that spearing fish and having bait float among the divers is unlikely to trigger an injury. Jimmy's only two incidents (including a fatality and his own lemon bite) happened when the divers got mixed up with the bait. Certainly, the protocols used on my trip on the Shearwater did not allow such a procedure for shark viewing dives. If Jimmy or the divemasters saw even one tenth of the behavior in that seven minute video, they would have "gone postal" and those divers would have been sitting out the dives until they woke up.

Also, Jimmy's dives were on the bottom in benign conditions and shallow water. Doing this at depth in 130 feet or more, or with a group of disconnected free swimming divers near the surface, just adds a whole new level of hazard.

If these dives can be made relatively safe, I would agree that they might be good for conservation and public awareness, but there is a long way to go before Maribi and I sign up for what I saw or for me to do anything but strenuously discourage everyone we know. By contrast, I would take her with Jimmy any day, using the procedures we used in the Bahamas.

Hi Guy,
I actually got into a very heated argument with Randy on Spearboard over the kinds of actions taking place on many videos they shot, like the one you reference...

I am saying there is a smarter and safer way for divers to see sharks, than the way Randy does it....There WILL be several other boats doing it smarter and safer. Many of us in diving hate the idea of doing smarter and safer...When I used to dive just with other hunter/killers, that would have been my attitude...now I dive with Sandra, and I go for smarter and safer.

The market will shake itself out....smarter and safer will be found on several boats --and those that hate smarter and safer will love diving with Randy.

I will hope no one get's hurt or killed....a sentiment we all have for Jimmy dives as well--heck, we have that for ALL scuba dives with tourists in general.

---------- Post added June 24th, 2013 at 06:14 PM ----------

I seem to remember the feeding ban came around the time of a couple of high profile beach attacks. Remember Jesse Arbogast in the Panhandle and the man swimming in Grand Bahama. Both were serious attacks and bulls. It was around that time the ban kicked in. There was a lot of media frenzy at the time.

I remember that as well, and I think you are right--this assisted the commercial guys alot with their efforts to demonize shark dives....the really stupid thing about those attacks at the beaches----there were always baitfish blasting around in murky water ( why is someone swimming in this???) and there were surf fisherman very close to where the Jesse Arbogast attack occurred....I would expect there is surf fishing , and fishing piers involved nearby many of the beach attacks--but no one ever seems to connect the dots!!!! Fish struggling on a line should equal no kids swimming nearby......Do we blame parents for being responsible for allowing this? Is this going to require more brain power than knowing that hot coffee at Mcdonalds could burn you if it spilled in your lap?